Author Frank Morin
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Ch 18 - I Play Dodge With a Rockslide
🕑 Added 2024-10-10 18:08:22 +0000 UTCI continued northeast, hoping the quest helper had been signaling the locations of more than one teammate. Or at least a teammate who still lived.
I was glad I found Andy and avenged him. My quest updated to 1 of 4 teammates found, but I didn’t feel like I’d actually made progress.
The forest remained sparse, with enormous trees and spiky underbrush. This entire valley seemed to be pretty uniform. I heard howls and roars in the distance, but spotted no monsters.
The afternoon sun had fallen behind the peak of one of the giant mountains, but I figured I still had at least a couple hours of sunlight left. I pushed on harder, hoping to find someone before dark.
The ground started rising more, the trees thinning further as I neared the steep foothills leading up to the higher mountain cliffs that blocked access farther north. Soon I’d have to turn west or head deeper into the rising slopes to the east.
A few minutes later, I topped a long rise, enjoying the feeling of strength as I ran. I was breathing easy, despite the hard exercise and felt like I could run all day.
I had learned that my Endurance stat changed as it depleted while I ran. Instead of just saying 3, it changed to 2.5 of 3, showing my current percentage of the max.
I paused to study the next glade between hills. It was a pretty, grass-lined meadow, ringed with smaller trees. One giant tree rose in the center, like one of the towering sequoias in California. Its lowest branches had to be at least 40 feet off the ground, and its crown covered half the glade.
Movement at the base caught my eye, and I squinted. It was still a mile away, but I made out a humanoid figure. They had to be huge, their head more than halfway up the trunk to the first branch. I couldn’t tell what they were doing.
I heard a scream, though.
It rang distantly from the same direction and my heart ran cold. That sound was unmistakably a human woman. A teammate.
I bolted down the slope, straight toward the glade and the giant tree. Whatever was going on, I refused to allow another teammate to die before I reached them.
I crossed that mile in less than two minutes. Running down hill over open ground, pouring on everything I had, I could move! In any other moment, I would have laughed with pure joy all the way. Instead, I railed at the fact that I couldn’t run even faster.
As I drew closer, the situation became clear. A woman was up in that huge tree. Somehow she’d made it up to that first branch, and I was glad she had. The branch was as thick as a road, and she crouched on it, peering out occasionally at the monster trying to reach her.
An ogre.
It had to be. The giant, humanoid monster was even bigger than the trolls in the Lord of the Rings movies. Its thick, green hide looked rough, and it wore a leather vest studded with steel spikes, along with canvas shorts big enough to cover a truck.
It was raging around the base of the tree, throwing rocks as big as couches at the woman. Some missed, while others careened off the branch, striking with such force that bark and wood sprayed and the thick branch swayed wildly.
Between shots, the ogre would smash its wooden club against the trunk of the huge tree. The club was twelve feet log and three feet in diameter. It smashed into the trunk with insane force, cracking the bark and making leaves shudder hundreds of feet above. So far the tree was weathering the barrage, but how long before the monster smashed through?
I didn’t bother with my Mirror cloak or waste a precious instance of my new Void Step spell. The ogre was totally focused on trying to get the woman out of the tree.
Only a suicidal idiot charges a 20-foot ogre with nothing but a short sword, but it was the only good weapon I had. If I hesitated and it discovered me, it would squash me into jelly in a split second.
So I sprinted straight in, trying to ignore my rising terror as the huge monster loomed larger and larger in my vision.
You’re an idiot! This is insane. What are you doing?
Soulrend dropped into my hand. The ethereal blade shimmered like blue smoke in the bright sunlight as I sprinted closer. The ogre seemed to blot out the entire sky as it loomed over me like a 2-story building.
Fighting a growing sense of panic, I sprinted toward the giant monster, but hesitated 10 strides back until it took a heavy step that shook the ground.
That was my chance. It’s footsteps tended to be several seconds apart. Gulping foul-smelling air and trying to swallow against a suddenly dry throat, I rushed forward, right up to the back of the monster.
There, I slashed it through the backs of both legs, just below the knees. I’d prefer taking out the knees directly, but they were a little too high, so my short sword wouldn’t have a good angle. Tops of the calves would have to do.
The ethereal blade met some resistance as I ripped it across the backs of the ogre’s knees. It wasn’t the thick hide or even the bone, though. The blade passed through the ogre’s flesh without leaving a mark. Instead, I felt the ethereal blade interacting with the ogre’s spirit. It was a powerful spirit and resisted getting cut, but Soulrend proved up to the challenge.
I skidded to a halt next to the monster and turned to watch it fall. No lower legs meant no balance. It roared with pain, but as it toppled backward, its legs no longer supporting its weight, it glanced down and our eyes met.
The monster had brightly glowing yellow eyes in its brutish, apelike face. They locked on me, and it bared black teeth as it smashed its club down with all its strength.
That was a much more coherent response than I was expecting. That strike would pulverize me to paste, even with Energy Ward.
So I triggered Void Step.
The world blinked and shifted around me in a disorienting blur that left me feeling nauseous. I coughed back a rush of bile and tried to figure out where I’d ended up.
The club smashed down not far away, driving into the soft ground with a crash that shook the meadow. That’s when I realized I’d teleported about 20 feet, barely to the opposite side of the ogre.
I hadn’t really been focusing on my target location. Idiot! I’d wasted the first use of my spell.
The ogre crashed to the ground a second later, shaking the meadow again. I was standing close enough that I stumbled from the impact.
Righting myself, I gagged at the ogre’s stench. I’d never imagined a big monster might have sweat issues, but its rank odor was like all the gym lockers in the world condensed into a liquid that had been sprayed up my nose.
The ogre roared again. I don’t know if it somehow spotted me, or was just trying to catch itself, but one hand as big as a garden shed swept out and clobbered me.
It was like getting punched in my entire body by the front end of a semi. The world tumbled again, but then just kept tumbling as I rocketed across the meadow, skipping across the soft grasses like a big rock across a pond.
I knew this was a bad idea!
I triggered a standard healing potion from my hotlist while I was still tumbling. If the ogre had hit me with all his strength, I probably would have just exploded, even with my tier-1 body.
That blow had not been focused, but still cracked ribs and left my entire body screaming as tendons strained and my neck wrenched from one bounce where I struck face-down.
Luckily, I slowed to a crumpled heap before crashing through the trees ringing the meadow. Coughing up blood and grass and dirt, I painfully rolled to my knees and shook more grass out of my eyes. My head was still spinning, I was gasping for breath, but my thoughts focused fast when I spotted the ogre.
The monster was charging after me.
Its lower legs didn’t work, but that only seemed to anger it more. It was galloping across the meadow on all fours.
Its huge fists were tearing giant chunks out of ground with every lunging heave while it drove its knees into the ground to push itself even faster. Its feet dragged uselessly behind, carving long trenches in the meadow.
I looked down and was amazed to see I was still clutching Soulrend. The blade had disappeared into the pommel, thankfully. It would have been stupid rotten luck to accidentally sever the spirit in my own leg or something. I re-engaged it as I jumped to my feet and triggered Energy Ward.
My defensive aura wouldn’t stop a direct hit from the ogre, but it might help me avoid a glancing blow. I needed every bit of advantage I could get.
Activating my cloak wouldn’t help. The ogre knew my position, his yellow-eyed glare locked on me as he galloped like a raging bull straight at me.
A primal part of my brain was screaming at me to turn and run as fast as I could into the trees to escape. My legs quivered with the need to run and my body still trembled with pain from that crazy punch-fueled tumble, despite the soothing effects of the healing potion.
I held my ground, met the ogre’s angry yellow eyes, and bared my teeth. “Come and get some!”
Man, that was weak, but it was all I had at the moment.
The ogre roared again and he threw himself forward at twice his previous speed. He literally flew across the remaining distance. One giant fist started glowing yellow as he cocked it back to deliver a death blow.
An ogre with magic? No fair!
I sprinted to the side, taking 3 fast steps, then diving with all my strength as that magic-fueled fist thundered into the spot where I’d just been.
The impact was like a thunderclap. It sprayed dirt hundreds of yards, mostly into the trees, but part of the wave blasted up under me, sending me tumbling again, even with Energy Ward diverting some of the impact.
As the world spun crazily, I caught glimpses of the ogre. His fist gouged a divot deep enough for a pond. His body crashed into the ground behind his fist, shaking the meadow again and spraying even more dirt into the nearby forest. The wave of destruction toppled 3 of the smaller trees and shook the others to their roots.
I spun 8 full somersaults as I tumbled over 50 feet through the air. Tapping into my enhanced agility, I managed to twist to land on my feet, then slid another 20 feet across the grass before stopping.
When the ogre ground to a halt, it lay still for a second, as if it had stunned itself with that strike. Or it needed a second to regain its strength after pouring so much into the punch.
I wasn’t about to wait for it to come after me again. Resisting the urge to shout a battle cry, I sprinted at the fallen monster. It groaned and started to rise to its hands and knees, shaking its head and spraying more dirt everywhere.
I ran right up the sloping ramp of one of its thighs. Its thick, rough hide gave my boots excellent purchase. As I dashed up its back, I plunged Soulrend down and dragged it all the way up along the ogre’s spine.
The blade left no trail of blood as it tore through the ogre’s spirit like a slashing paddle through water. The ogre’s powerful spirit resisted the blade, but couldn’t stop it.
I didn’t slow, my gaze focused on the monster’s head. The ogre roared, its body stiffening with pain for 2 eternal seconds.
That was more than enough time for me to reach its massive shoulders. I swiped my sword through the back of the ogre’s neck, then dove forward, plunging the blade into the base of its skull and wrenching it side to side as far as I could reach.
It was so weird seeing no visible wounds. No blood sprayed as Soulrend passed through hide and bone and flesh.
The wounds were real, though, and I sliced the ogre’s spirit apart. I felt even greater resistance there, as if the monster’s spirit was condensed in his head and I was trying to cut through mud.
The monster started to roar again, then its head fell forward, totally limp. Its body crashed down next, and I clung on for dear life as thousands of pounds of dead ogre smashed down beneath me.
“Congratulations, Lucas! You have defeated a Rockslide Ogre, level 21. Bonus experience gained for defeating a higher-level enemy.”
“No level?” I asked as I stood on the giant corpse. “This monster was the highest-level thing I’ve faced, not to mention the biggest and scariest. This kill, plus that serpent, should have given me more than enough experience for my next one.”
Cyrus said, “I love your enthusiasm for improvement, but you’re not quite there yet. You get 10 times the stat boost per level, so you need a lot more experience to justify the gains.”
“Ten times as much experience? That’s not a benefit at all.”
“The math gets complicated on challenge worlds. You broke the curve, so to speak, so I’m tweaking things as we go. For example, I’ve had to create a unique calculation for you to handle bonuses for level disparities. You’re only level 1, but you have a tier-1 body. That places you strength-wise at least equal with a level 15 monster. Maybe higher.”
“So I have to start killing monsters at least at level 25 to get a better bonus?”
“That would make my job easier, yes,”
“And get me killed.”
“Cheer up, Lucas. You’ll get there and the rewards will be worth the effort. Look what you just accomplished.”
The experiment was turning into a dud, as far as I could see. Focusing on my frustration with Cyrus helped me avoid thinking about how insane attacking the ogre had been.
What had I been thinking? I’d nearly died. My muscles shook with lingering adrenaline and fear. My stomach roiled, and my head ached. I wanted to go lie down somewhere, but then some other monster would probably show up and rip out my spine.
I glanced down at Soulrend. The epic short sword was immensely powerful, but it required me to get up very close and personal. That wasn’t my preferred approach. Actually, I had no preferred approach with monsters. Monsters weren’t real back on Earth.
Didn’t matter. I didn’t have a choice. Cyrus had given me a mighty weapon, but also forced me to take insane risks to use it. Scowling, I returned Soulrend to my inventory and triggered Soul Feed.
A vast cloud of pure white light flowed into the air from the ogre’s corpse. It roiled all around me, a torrent of energy pouring through me, but the cloud did not dissipate. My Energy Ward sprang to life around me, looking denser than I’d ever seen, but still more white light remained.
Eva said, “Health and mana pools topped off and all of your physical stats are boosted by 20% for two minutes. Energy Ward fueled at 250% for two minutes. Excess energy lost.”
I breathed deep, sucking more of the white light into my lungs as I enjoyed the rush of health and strength. My wounds were totally healed. My stats all glowed green with the temporary boost, but I hated to see energy go to waste.
“Can’t I do anything with the rest of the energy?”
“You have nothing to store it in,” Cyrus said.
“How about my energy storage crystal?”
“Even if the crystal wasn’t damaged, you lack the tools to transfer this kind of latent energy into it.”
I hated waste, but there was nothing I could do. Stabbing myself with my hunting knife just to use up more healing energy seemed stupid.
“Would you like to use Harvest on the Rockslide Ogre?” Eva asked.
“Yes!”
“Congratulations, Lucas! You have successfully harvested the spell Thunder Punch. Deliver a devastating blow of concentrated power equal to 5 times your strength. Remaining uses: 3. Cooldown between uses: 15 seconds. Mana consumption: Major.”
At least Harvest worked, and that was a great spell. It used a lot more mana than any of my other spells, but I could see why. I was still surrounded by the devastation the ogre had caused using that spell.
“Wait, are you calculating my strength as 2.1?” That would be lame.
“It is calculated on how much power you can wield, so it will be quite high,” Cyrus assured me.
That was a relief. I glanced at my spells menu and frowned. “Hey, what happened to Void Step? I still had another use, didn’t I?”
“You replaced it with Thunder Punch,” Cyrus said, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Wait, you never said Harvesting a new spell would replace the last one!”
“The description was clear, Lucas. Harvest 1 spell. Why do you sound confused?”
“I thought I would keep the harvested spell until I used it up?”
Cyrus chuckled. “It’s already a unique spell. If it let you keep every harvested spell, it would be a divine unique spell.”
“Why? I have several other temporary spells?”
“As you probably noticed, there are cooldown periods for most spells. Assuming you have enough mana, you can only cast your few temporary spells in fast succession so many times before having to wait for them to recharge. If you could Harvest as many spells as you wanted to, you could accumulate an arsenal of unique spells that could overwhelm anything in a never-ending barrage.”
That was actually what I’d been hoping for. Mana potions didn’t refill my entire pool instantly, but did add a bunch right away, then filled in the rest over half a minute. Worst case, I had figured I could use multiple potions to keep flinging spells. His explanation made sense, but it was still annoying.
“Sometimes I wonder if you’re leaving out details on purpose.”
“The journey of discovery is so much more fulfilling than a path with no surprises, don’t you think?”
I didn’t want to waste time arguing. Thunder Punch was a fantastic spell, and I was almost out of uses of Void Step anyway. So I took a deep breath, accepted my new understanding of Harvest, and clicked on the mental prompt to loot the ogre. Loot always helped me feel better.
Except I’d forgotten I was standing on a giant corpse. I gagged as an enormous cloud of black smoke and stench covered the ogre while it evaporated.
“Ugh! My mouth was open too.” I leaped off and ran for the big tree, using a flask of water to rinse my mouth. I needed to remember to back up next time.
I got a bunch of basic loot, including more torches, dozens of mana crystals, another standard healing potion, water, food, and bandages. I also got my first stamina potion, which replenished Endurance.
“Oh, this’ll come in handy,” I said sarcastically as I pulled the last item from my inventory.
A giant uncommon ogre’s club popped into view in front of me. It was as big as the ogre’s tree-trunk club, but this one was shaped more like a classic club, except it was 20 feet long and probably weighed 500 pounds.
It was heavy, but I could actually lift it and swing it around some. It had no enhancements and was very unwieldy. I felt like a toddler swinging a baseball bat. Still, it might actually prove useful if I needed to bash something stationary really hard.
“Hello?”
The voice turned me around and I dumped the club back into my inventory. The voice turned me around and I dumped the club back into my inventory. it was the woman who had been trapped up in the tree.
